MayBe?

musings from the hinterland

Just got back from celebrating Christmas with my family in Munich where I noticed countless ads like this one. Guess who they're for...Marlboro. In other words, "be" a smoker. A proposition as unethical as it is stupid, right? Not to mention the art direction nightmare going on in the background (is that supposed to look like crinkled cig paper? dunno.)

But after a few days I realized the campaign is genius. Headline, tagline, call to action—it's all the same thing. Sinisterly simple.

Be yourself? Be carefree? Be stupid? Be a Marlboro man? Doesn't matter—the point is you buy in no matter what. Even if you can't read it, you buy in. I mean they're running in Germany...in English. Telling you to live even as they're selling you death.

What audacity. Hate to say it, but I would've loved to have worked on this campaign.

- Nick Elliott, ACD